Defining the relationship between obstetricians and maternal-fetal medicine specialists

The purpose of this study was to determine how frequently general obstetricians refer pregnant patients to maternal-fetal medicine specialists in the presence of the clinical indications specified as appropriate for referral or consultation by the 1996 statement of the Society of Perinatal Obstetricians.

A questionnaire was mailed to 400 randomly selected general obstetricians across the United States. The obstetricians were asked how often they refer their high-risk pregnant patients to maternal-fetal medicine specialists in the presence of (1) a need for diagnostic or therapeutic procedures, (2) medical/surgical disorders, (3) healthy gravid women with high-risk fetuses, and (4) conditions that necessitate admission for reasons other than delivery. Response categories for each individual procedure/high-risk condition included "always," "frequently," "infrequently," "never," and "not applicable."

Overall, 55% of the responses indicated referral (always or frequently) to maternal-fetal medicine specialists for procedures or in the presence of high-risk conditions. More than 75% of the obstetricians always or frequently refer to maternal-fetal medicine specialists for most diagnostic/therapeutic procedures and for the following high-risk conditions: acute fatty liver, portal hypertension, pulmonary hypertension, transplantations, fetal hydrops, fetal anomaly/cytogenetic abnormality, fetal supraventricular tachycardia or congenital heart block, isoimmunization, and twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.

Most of the conditions for which >75% of the obstetricians refer to maternal-fetal medicine are rarely seen in practice. Comprehensive ultrasound examination is the only commonly encountered clinical situation that >75% of the general obstetricians refer to maternal-fetal medicine specialists.